How to add a custom color for Windows 10 taskbar

The default settings in Windows 10 imparts a black color to the taskbar, Action Center and even the Start Menu of the interface but that doesn’t limit the scope of a user to change it to the color of his choice. The latest version of the OS houses multiple options and different settings to customize taskbar and Start menu in Windows 10. As such, you can add a custom color to taskbar in the Windows 10 Settings app.

Add a custom color for taskbar in Windows 10

To do this, launch the ‘Settings’ app. From the menu, select the ‘Personalization’ tile and chose ‘Colors’ option.

Then, look for the option ‘Automatically pick an accent color from my background’. If the option is enabled, disable it for acquiring the ability to control colors for the taskbar and other appearance elements.

Keep scrolling down, until you find the last color box. This is the box that allows customisation by a user.

To proceed further, enable the option “Show color on taskbar, Start menu and Action Center” and select one of the predefined colors as a current color, ignoring the last box.

Now, open registry editor. To do so, press Win key +R in combination.

In the Run dialog box that appears, type ‘Regedit’ and hit Enter. Navigate to the following path:

Here, you should notice a 32-bit DWORD value SpecialColor. In Windows 10 it already has a value data.

This value is a color in Alpha, Blue, Green, Red color, abbreviated form ABGR format. You can enter value to specify your own custom color. For example, here, I have set a gray color by changing the SpecialColor value data to grey (the value is 00bab4ab).

The author Hemant Saxena is a post-graduate in bio-technology and has an immense interest in following Windows, Office and other technology developments. Quiet by nature, he is an avid Lacrosse player. Creating a System Restore Point first before installing a new software, and being careful about any third-party offers while installing freeware is recommended.